FM, any listeners left?

[LuvTheMusic]

As some others have implied, the main advantage of FM is the people who make the music happen. If I want the best sound, I can load a CD or tap a high resolution stream or play a downloaded file. But if I want to be surprised and delighted by a new piece of music or a new performance or a new artist, and maybe even learn a bit about the artist or composer (for classical) or the structure of the music, FM with a host who knows something can be wonderful, even over a not-very-good car radio.....

 

[jbags]

Yes I listen to HDFM through an Outlaw Audio receiver. KJAZ from Long Beach CA, KUSC Classical station, LA. KCRW Santa Monica, and KPCC, a NPR, station Pasadena, my son is a reporter there. KUSC sounds wonderful.

 

[mhardy6647]

Listenin' to Vermont Public Radio's excellent folk/blues/roots/world music program All the Traditions even as I type this.

DSC_0705 (2) by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

Not a current photo -- I tidied it up a bit when we had the new high-efficiency heat pump installed for the hifi room last summer. Same tunas in the stack, though.

 

[Ralph_Cramden]

 

[mhardy6647]

View attachment 116904

How is that partucular HD Sony (in terms of both radio and audio performance)? I've been thinking about grabbing one on eBAY...

 

[Taxi]

I remember being very excited when I finally owned a receiver that could receive HD Radio stations. For example, the local AOR station here in Portland, KGON, had a second, ad-free, concert only station that I was really enjoying. I think this was around the 2007/8 time frame. Then a couple of things happened that effectively ended it: 1) the corporatization of FM radio in my area (and likely the nation) and 2) streaming audio.

Now don't get me wrong, I like streaming audio. But the part of HD Radio that appealed to me was local flavor of these stations. Local DJ's picking songs. Now everything is corporate and national and scrubbed down. No thanks.

 

[restorer-john]

In general terms, Streaming will have better specs than FM, as FM is limited to a 15kHz bandwidth, transmit/receive distortion around the 1% mark, noise around -60dB and stereo separation of 40dB at best. Adequate rather than exceptional.

You clearly need a much better tuner.

My Sony STS-333ESX mk2 (Japan/Australia) (also sold as the 730es in the US but with downgraded specs)

Even AM THD is less than 0.3%...

It is the best performing tuner I own, line ball with a couple of TOTL Pioneers and an amazing old Aiwa AT-9700 unit which looks like this and is the size and weight of medium amplifier:

(internet pic)

 

[rdenney]

For classic Japanese brands, the tuner I’d want is a Kenwood L-02T. Bring your checkbook.

The tuner I use, primarily for WETA (classical) and talk, is a Carver TX-11a. I don’t have line-of-sight over intervening ridges, but I do have this:

Rick “the Carver is good for DX, reasonably selective, and provides an effective noise filter that doesn’t kill stereo” Denney

 

[Frank Dernie]

You clearly need a much better tuner.

My Sony STS-333ESX mk2 (Japan/Australia) (also sold as the 730es in the US but with downgraded specs)
View attachment 116944

Even AM THD is less than 0.3%...

It is the best performing tuner I own, line ball with a couple of TOTL Pioneers and an amazing old Aiwa AT-9700 unit which looks like this and is the size and weight of medium amplifier:

(internet pic)
View attachment 116945

@sergeauckland is probably referring to the specification of the broadcast signal not the receiver John.

 

[sergeauckland]

@sergeauckland is probably referring to the specification of the broadcast signal not the receiver John.

Indeed. The latest digitally modulated direct to channel transmitters will have well under 0.1% distortion, and wide separation, existing 40 year old tetrode FM transmitters won't. Even 20 year old SS transmitters with analogue modulation and stereo generators won't.

S.

 

[adc]

As some others have implied, the main advantage of FM is the people who make the music happen. If I want the best sound, I can load a CD or tap a high resolution stream or play a downloaded file. But if I want to be surprised and delighted by a new piece of music or a new performance or a new artist, and maybe even learn a bit about the artist or composer (for classical) or the structure of the music, FM with a host who knows something can be wonderful, even over a not-very-good car radio.....

Exactly this. Discovery of new music, learning something I never knew about old music, and just plain being surprised, as you say -- that's what made good FM. KSHE in St. Louis! Anyone remember them in the 70s and 80s?

I have a Carver TX12 that I bought at a pawn shop 15 years ago, and it's beautiful (except for the usual Carver interface foibles -- too many identical tiny buttons), but there's just no content worth plugging it in for anymore. FM is a wasteland of nationally programmed pablum. The TX12 is in a closet gathering dust (along with the Nakamichi DR3 that I can't bring myself to part with, even thought I have approximately zero cassettes now).

You know where discovery and surprise have gone? Satellite. I've got more great new music and cool artist info from the Garth channel than I have from any other source in the last 10 years. Sadly, it ain't cheap.

And finally, does anyone under 30 even know what it feels like when no one is tracking every freaking thing you listen to? Remember when Arbitron had to ASK people to tell them what they listened to? Before your listening habits were recorded along with your IP address and email address and cross-referenced with what you buy on Amazon and what news stories you read? Wasn't the privacy wonderful?

At least that part is still mostly true for satellite. As far as I know, satellite radios are one-way devices that can't report what you're listening to. (Of course, that doesn't apply if you stream Sirius on your computer.)

 

[Willem]

We moved to internet radio and are very pleased. Depending on bit rate, sound quality is not perfect, but with bitrates going up this is becoming a vanishing problem. Conversely, FM was never perfect either so you are trading one kind of imperfection for another. The big advantage is world wide coverage. I can listen to my favourite npr or bbc station while living in the Netherlands. I am currently brushing up my Italian so I can now easily listen to Italian radio.

 

[threni]

Not music on FM but I always travel with a small radio capable of FM and SW, and at home I'll dial around on SW to see what I can hear. Compared to what it was like 35-40 years ago though.... between the sunspots and the internet SW is pretty dead.

The Tecsun PL-880 is pretty nice:

https://swling.com/blog/2013/12/a-review-of-the-tecsun-pl-880-portable-shortwave-radio/

 

[Thalis]

FM? oooh yeaaa.........

 

[Willem]

Our car radio now has digital radio (DAB+) and reception is a lot better than FM. We also stream either internet radio or Spotify from our phones over BT, but that is sonically not quite as good as DAB+.

 

[Ralph_Cramden]

How is that partucular HD Sony (in terms of both radio and audio performance)? I've been thinking about grabbing one on eBAY...

It doesn't have the legendary sensitivity and selectivity of Sony's later HD tuna and radio, but it sounds great for its size, and looks a whole lot better on a tabletop. Shares that big lump of a power supply in the middle of the line cord as its cousins, sadly. Well worth the $5 or so I picked it up for at a Goodwill years ago.

http://monitoringtimes.com/mtfirstlook-sonyxdr-s3hd.pdf

 

[mhardy6647]

It doesn't have the legendary sensitivity and selectivity of Sony's later HD tuna and radio, but it sounds great for its size, and looks a whole lot better on a tabletop. Shares that big lump of a power supply in the middle of the line cord as its cousins, sadly. Well worth the $5 or so I picked it up for at a Goodwill years ago.

http://monitoringtimes.com/mtfirstlook-sonyxdr-s3hd.pdf

hmmm... thanks for the "review". I might have to spring for one!

 

[M-D-Z]

Recently I discovered a refreshing FM signal coming down from Bridgeport CT, across the Long Island Sound that has rekindled my interest in, and enjoyment of old school FM. WPKN 89.5 ~ I believe I am at the outer fringes of its broadcast reach.

It is consistently slammed hard left politically, but their diversity in music genres and intriguing programming has pleasantly surprised me.
I took my Sansui TU 919 out of the storage room, so now I get a better FM audio experience than what the old Eight Deluxe receiver had produced. My Crown FM two has some difficulty locking on to a clean stereo signal.

 

[restorer-john]

I took my Sansui TU 919 out of the storage room

Nothing like getting a TU-919 out for a spin!

 

[RustyGates]

I listen to a lot of Mix 94.5 or 96.1 when I am in Perth, and all sorts of Radio when I'm in Melbourne.